the cattle in behind the nearest fence, hid her milk-pail, and started to thread her perilous way through twenty miles of bewildering bypaths to the Beaver Dams.  Keeping off the beaten tracks and always in the shadow of the full-leaved trees, she stole along through the American lines, crossed the no-man’s-land between the two desperate enemies, and managed to get inside the ever-shifting fringe of Indian scouts without being seen by friend or foe.  The heat was intense; and the whole forest steamed with it after the tropical rain.  But she held her course without a pause, over the swollen streams on fallen tree-trunks, through the dense underbrush, and in and out of the mazes of the forest, where a bullet might come from either side without a moment’s warning.  As she neared the end of her journey a savage yell told her she was at last discovered by the Indians.  She and they were on the same side; but she had hard work to persuade them that she only wished to warn FitzGibbon.  Then came what, to a lesser patriot, would have been a crowning disappointment.  For when, half dead with fatigue, she told him her story, she found he had already heard it from the scouts.  But just because this forestalment was no real disappointment to her, it makes her the Anglo-Canadian heroine whose fame for bravery in war is worthiest of being remembered with that of her French-Canadian sister, Madeleine de Vercheres. [Footnote:  For Madeleine de Vercheres see The fighting Governor in this Series.]

Boerstler’s six hundred had only ten miles to go in a straight line.  But all the thickets, woods, creeks, streams, and swamps were closely beset by a body of expert, persistent Indians, who gradually increased from two hundred and fifty to four hundred men.  The Americans became discouraged and bewildered; and when FitzGibbon rode up at the head of his redcoats they were ready to give in.  The British posts were all in excellent touch with each other; and de Haren arrived in time to receive the actual surrender.  He was closely followed by the 2nd Lincoln Militia under Colonel Clark, and these again by Colonel Bisshopp with the whole of the advanced guard.  But it was the Indians alone who won the fight, as FitzGibbon generously acknowledged:  ’Not a shot was fired on our side by any but the Indians.  They beat the American detachment into a state of terror, and the only share I claim is taking advantage of a favourable moment to offer protection from the tomahawk and scalping knife.’

June was a lucky month for the British at sea as well as on the land; and its ‘Glorious First,’ so called after Howe’s victory nineteen years before, now became doubly glorious in a way which has a special interest for Canada.  The American frigate Chesapeake was under orders to attack British supply-ships entering Canadian waters; and the victorious British frigate Shannon was taken out of action and into a Canadian port by a young Canadian in the Royal Navy.